The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

Radio Svoboda’s Crimean site reports that the daughter of Liza Bohutska, Sakina was stopped by Russian border guards and taken off the train. Sakina Bohutska was trying to get to mainland Ukraine in order to get her photograph inserted in her passport as is legally required after one’s 25th birthday.

The border guards claimed that she didn’t have the right to cross what they called the Russian border since her Ukrainian passport was not valid. They suggested that she ‘resolve the problem’ by getting a Russian passport.

This is clearly a form of blackmail. As Liza Bohutska points out, her daughter refused to take Russian citizenship, but is now being stopped from leaving for the mainland on her Ukrainian passport.

“It turns out that my daughter can’t make her document legal although she remains a Ukrainian citizen. I suspect that this has been specially thought up so as to put pressure on Ukrainians here in the Crimea”, she said.

Liza Bohutska is a Crimean blogger living in Simferopol. She is an ethnic Russian, but well-known for her patriotic words. She has refused Russian citizenship and says that she is Ukrainian and lives in Ukraine.